Christopher Polhem

Christopher Polhem (1661 to 1751), born Christopher Polhammar, was a Swedish scientist, inventor and industrialist whose work shaped Sweden's economic and industrial development, above all in mining. He was born at Tingstade on Gotland, lost his father at eight and was sent to an uncle in Stockholm, then worked as a farm supervisor at Vansta in Södertörn for ten years, where he built a workshop and learned mathematics and mechanics. He traded the construction of a complex clock for Latin lessons, and after he repaired two broken clocks for Anders Spole, professor of mathematics at Uppsala and grandfather of Anders Celsius, he entered Uppsala University in 1687 at the age of 26. King Charles XII ennobled him in 1716 for his services, and he took the name Polhem. He married Maria Hoffman in 1691 and they had eight children. He and his son Gabriel Polhem were both elected members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1739, the year it was founded, and he died in Stockholm in 1751 at the age of 90.